Crochet for Babies Book

Now this is more like it. As promised I have put a few patterns on the blog from Crochet for Babies 70217 The Needlecraft Shop. There are so many beautiful patterns in this book that I will put a few on each blog as I couldn't possibly choose which ones that I like the best.

The first is a typical matinee set complete with bootees, hat and blanket.Soft Shells Layette by Karen Whooley. The design is very pretty but I would have chosen smaller buttons as they do tend to dominate and distract from the pattern.

The second is a darling hat called Visiting Granny Hat by Bonnie Pierce. I think it gets it's name from the fact that the crown is a granny square or should I say a granny round.

The bootees are aptly named Fancy Footwear by Shelia Leslie and they are such a pretty set of bootees. Two pairs are decorated with flowers, one pair simulates Mary Janes with socks and the last pair in blue is laced up the front like a little pair of trainers.

The Cozy Sack for Preemie by Cassandra Hennen is modelled on a doll and would be great for any big sister's dolly when a new baby arrives in the family. I think it helps to stave off jealousy if big sister has a baby doll to dress up and care for too.

The Pillow Toys for Playtime by Svetlana Avrakh would make lovely soft safe toys for a young baby to play with and as the name suggests they would not hurt the baby if it fell asleep on any of them. As long as all of the trimmings are securely fastened on as everything makes it way into a baby's mouth.

The baby blanket is entitled Heirloom Aran Afghan as it is something that would stay in the family and is large enough to be useful as a floor throw or a cot blanket for an older child or even a lapghan for an adult.

There are so many patterns in this book that I am not going to be able to photograph every one but I will post more on here on a daily basis. In contrast to the knitted vintage book there are lots of patterns that I will make use of from this book. A welcome addition to my crochet library.

Thank you Ana Luisa for pointing me in the direction of a free vintage crochet pattern site in the comments on my last blog post. I just love those kind of patterns and will be having a really good browse on that site when I get time to have a good look.

I have started a knitted long sleeve for the striped sweater. I think that I will have enough cotton as I have measured and only need a sleeve length of 16" before I cast off. The sleeve head is straight as the sweater is drop shouldered so not many stripes to knit until I reach 16".

This morning was funny. I got up and went into the bathroom. I woke up some 15 minutes later still sitting on the toilet. The last time I did that I was quite young and had a little too much to drink. There is a first for everything. Now I know I am getting old. Cat napping on the toilet is not the comfiest place to sleep! I am used to nodding off in a chair whilst watching TV and even falling asleep over the PC but I shall have to be more watchful when I visit the smallest room in future.

I am still longing to start crocheting but I really am trying to finish the knitted sleeves first. So far I have resisted temptation.

Dillon The Herbivore

Dillon is growing up but not much taller. He was supposed to be a half Akita but he has a large head and such short little legs we are not sure what he is. He is very mischievous and a real handful. We just hope that we can find him a home where he can get lots of attention which he craves. He has such a cute face that I am sure one of my son's friends will fall for him soon. Lots of people have shown interest in him but they either have another dog or a cat and we think he would be better being the only animal for a while. He is like Tigger. He bounces everywhere and thinks everyone wants to play with him. His nickname is now Herbivore since he ate the plant that my son bought me for Mother's Day.

Yesterday I was so tired that I spent most of it dozing off in the chair. Today I seem to have recovered and have managed to finish off the neckline of the striped sweater. I just have to knit some sleeves now. I hope that I have enough cotton left to make the sleeves longer as I am not one for wearing short sleeves as shown on the pattern. I definitely have enough green and white but the mink colour is the one that I am worried about. I am going to start one sleeve and just hope for the best. Even long sleeves will be quite short as it is a dropped shoulder line and I don't have very long arms. I am longing to start some crochet but I am trying to make myself finish this knitting before I do,

I have put some more photos from the Vintage Baby book on the blog today. I will let you make your own mind up whether you like any of them. I doubt that I will be using this book much. I like the crochet book that I bought at the same time and will take some photos of the projects in that for another day.

I have seen on Ravelry that the new Interweave crochet is out in the US. There are a couple of jackets in it by Doris Chan in this issue. My copy won't arrive for another couple of weeks which is probably just as well as I have other things to finish before I get carried away with any new patterns.

I hope that I manage to stay awake this evening to get some more knitting done but as I am still not sleeping through the night I get very tired around 9pm and doze on and off until bedtime.

I Feel Pretty - Oh So Pretty

I often get asked why I am still single. I think that the top photo speaks volumes.I might be able to attract a man but he would have to be someone really special to want to sleep and wake up with me wearing my new CPAP breathing mask that I got today. Not only do I look absolutely fabulous wearing it the CPAP machine that it is attached to hisses and blows air and manages to sound as if someone is hoovering next to the bed. As you can see I am altogether a luscious package. Not much point wearing a sexy negligee when any poor man sleeping next to me would think he was in a force ten gale as the air whistles past his ears. Perhaps I should make potential suitors wear a balaclava helmet and ear plugs in bed?

I have been missing for a couple of days. I have had a busy social life for a change. Today wasn't so good I was out on public transport going to and from the hospital. I thought I had found a better way to eliminate the walking.It was a success as far as that was concerned but I had an unguided tour around Cheetham Hill along streets that were never designed for a bus to travel down them so there were a few hairy moments as it squeezed past cars almost taking of the wing mirrors.We went past where I first worked for the Jobcentre and it is no longer there. The people of Cheetham Hill must all be in work or else they now make them travel more miles to make a claim.I suspect that the latter is the case. I left my house at twelve and didn't get back until after five but I did call at Marks and Spencers on the way home. Thoughts of cooking dinner fled from my head and I settled for something for the oven. I went into the hospital cafe after my appointment but my sandwich was so disgusting that I left it. I had asked for a baked potato and the guy said he didn't have any. Two minutes later three people walked past me with baked potatoes. When I was on my way out I gave him a piece of my mind. I bet he won't forget me in a hurry. I told him exactly what I thought of his service and how rotten his sandwich was.

On Saturday I met up with my friend Sylvia and her foster baby and we went to Bury Market. I bought some black Jarol Heritage DK. It has 55% wool and is lovely and soft. I used some for my niece's Christmas present and she said it has washed really well. Unfortunately the stall holder said that it hasn't sold as well as he hoped so I guess that he won't be restocking it. He sells it for £2 per 100 gram which I think is extremely reasonable for something with so much wool. The aubergine is a mystery yarn without labels. As it was only £5.50 for the whole bag I bought it. If it only lasts a little while I don't mind at that price. I am going to make another Doris Chan sweater with it. I find that I really do wear them every day whereas I have a disgusting amount of fancier crochet items that languish unworn in my wardrobe as I consider them too nice to wear in the house. Sylvia bought some gorgeous fluffy chunky in muted random colours. I was very tempted but I made myself resist as I still have loads of wool in stash yet to work up. There never seems to be the colour that you fancy in stash though does there - or is that just me?

I have put some photos from the Vintage Baby Knits book by Kristen Rengren. I am still disappointed with the book. I was hoping for actual vintage patterns as I do love them but these are nothing like any vintage patterns that I have ever seen with the exception of the pink matinee jacket. The cape wouldn't be so bad if they had chosen a smaller baby to model it and the coat would be better if they chose a slimmer baby as the buttons gape badly. On first glance the red pram set looks OK but in the close up the collar is so big that it swamps the child and wouldn't keep it warm unless it was wearing a scarf underneath it as there is such a gap betwixt neck and collar. I will post some more tomorrow but don't hold your breath for anything wonderful.I have far prettier actual vintage patterns in my stash although I did "lose" a lot of them when a friend borrowed them and then denied she had ever borrowed them. I was and still am heartbroken about that loss. My charity shops never have any loose patterns for me to browse in - nor do they ever have any wool either. I keep asking on the off chance but it never happened. Other people who live in different areas seem to find lots of vintage patterns at car boots and charity shops.

My son and daughter in law visited me yesterday for Mother's Day. I was supposed to be getting a plant that they had chosen for me but Dillon the youngest dog decided that he was a herbivore and ate it! I got a box of emergency chocolates as most places were closed when they discovered the eaten plant. That dog is a real handful. I think that they are trying to re home him as he needs someone with lots of patience and no other dogs or cats. They saved him from going to the dog's home when they got him originally and are trying to re home him. Several people have shown interest in him so hopefully he will have a new home soon. He is a lovely dog but just too full of energy and mischief as he is still a young pup. Unfortunately he is teaching my son's other dog to be naughty and she was really well trained before he arrived. Buster tries to ignore him most of the time but eventually he loses him temper with the pup.

I have almost finished the second piece of the striped knitting. Once I have done the neckband then I will only have the sleeves to make and as the sweater is drop shouldered they shouldn't take as long. I need to start the black wool as it is for a gift but ideally I would like to finish the sweater off first before I start crocheting.

Watch this space. No bets on whether I give in and start to crochet tonight.

Crochet Ugg Style Boots

My niece's Ugg type slippers are finished. They are lovely and sturdy and will be very warm when she wears them. The pattern is Buttoned Cuff Boots by Darla Sims and can be found in an Annie's Attic booklet Slippers by the Dozen 879530. The pattern calls for medium weight worsted wool and as I am never sure what that means in UK terms I just guessed. Some patterns work up better in Double Knit and some in Aran. I think that worsted weight seems to be somewhere in between the thicknesses of wool that we have in the UK.

I used 6x 40 grams of vintage Lister's Kaftan which was an acrylic fine aran that was a bit fluffy. The boots are very firm as I had to crochet the yarn double. For the size that I made I needed a 4mm hook so I used a metal hook as I think that an acrylic or wooden hook would have broken as the work was quite stiff to crochet. I changed the stitch that the pattern used for the cuffs. As with a lot of US crochet patterns I sometimes just cannot grasp what they mean with their description of the stitch. I think this is where the different terminology confuses me. If I could see someone do the stitch then the penny would drop right away

Yesterday I got 2 books from Amazon that I ordered last week.I will post photos of some of the contents on another blog. I am quite pleased with the Crochet for Babies but am still mystified how people can crochet with loopy or textured yarn. There is a lovely white coat and hat with lamb ears but I could never crochet with the "poodle" type wool and I don't think that it would look as nice in plain wool. The front cover jacket is lovely but once again I have read the description of the stitch used and I don't understand what they mean. I will get a hook and some wool and give it a practise. I do wish that they would put a little diagram for unusual stitches showing where exactly to put the hook in as the description isn't making a lot of sense to me and I would like to make the jacket.

I am a little disappointed with the Vintage Baby Knits as I thought that it would have genuine patterns in it whereas it is in fact vintage style patterns revamped in thicker wool in an attempt to make them more appealing to modern mums. I have some fantastic genuine vintage patterns that are far nicer than the patterns in this book. I think if anyone was to go to all of the trouble of revamping patterns then it might have been better to chose some of the nicer ones instead of the ones chosen for this book. This of course if my personal opinion and other people may like the things in the book. I will take photos of some of the better ones and let you make your own mind up about them.

My disability aids arrived today. I thought that they would arrive with a guy to fit them but no. This guy said he is just the delivery guy. He just said phone them up for instructions as to how high to put the legs.He said they are usually adjusted before they are delivered but mine hadn't been. Story of my life? I managed to alter the kitchen stool myself but the toilet aids are a mystery to me. I think that I will have to wait for someone to take off my existing toilet seats for them to be properly positioned. I did sit down on one and the metal arms are very cold to the bare flesh. Considering they are for people up to 25 stones they are very narrow. If I put on another inch then I will be in trouble. I will need a shoe horn to get out of it! I had a bit of a giggle to myself thinking what kind of conversation I would have if I had to ring 999. Visions of the headlines in the local paper. Overweight lady is stuck in the handles of her toilet seat!

Not much sun today. The weather is overcast and quite windy. I have taken a chance and put some washing out to dry. I will have to keep an eye on it as I have a feeling that it will rain very soon.

Revised Boots

Revised version of the crochet boots from yesterday. I decided to unravel the boot and crochet it all in doubled wool. I was unhappy with the way that my decreasing had turned out on the first boot so I was going to re-do it anyway.

I have stopped the first boot and started the second. That's the only trouble with working with vintage wool. You can't get another ball if you run out. The boots are supposed to have a turn over top so I have stopped crocheting for the moment until I finish the foot of the second boot and find out whether the boots will have one or not. I might have to make a shorter turn up on each or leave them as they are with just a single thickness instead of a fold over. I will hopefully have them finished off by tomorrow so will have to make a decision soon.

The knitting didn't get any more stripes knitted last night as I was concentrating on getting the boot shaping right. Hopefully I will persuade myself to knit a couple more stripes before I start another project.

Today I went to the dentist. Just for a check up but I told him that I may not be able to make my next check up as his surgery is up a narrow flight of stairs. It might be some time before I can get up his stairs with one op and then the other,Apparently he has enquired about fitting a stair lift but they can't do that unless he has a new stair case fitted as well which would involve an awful lot of building work and he would have to close whilst it is being done. Surely I can't be the only patient of his that has difficulty with his steep narrow staircase. I would change dentists but it so hard these days to get a dentist to take you on as a new patient. Luckily my teeth are in fairly good shape for my age and so missing an appointment won't be the worse thing in the world as long as I don't have any dental emergencies.

When I got off the tram the ticket inspectors were on the platform. Two of them were lovely. One carried my trolley down the stairs and the other one held my arm and helped me down the stairs. They do have a long ramp but it twists and turns so much that I feel like I have walked home if I go down that.I suppose that there are legislations on how steep the ramp can be and that is why it involves the three terraces. They really need a lift on the station. Some of the stations have them but some of the lifts are not working which is equally as bad as not having one at all. I have just read in the local paper that they are doing some more work on the line and the trams will stop again in July and August. I feel that they have only just got back running as normal and now they are messing about again. All last summer I could not get into the centre of Manchester as the tram stopped at Victoria station and the walk into the shopping mall was a long walk for me. They did provide a bus service but it didn't run from outside the station and I would have had to walk a distance to catch it and even then it didn't stop in the centre of Manchester because of the one way system. Anyone with any kind of a walking problem was definitely at a disadvantage.

I was going to do a bit of housework today but my knees want a good sit down at the moment so maybe later this afternoon I will hoover etc.

Buttoned Cuff Boots

Last night I started a pair of Buttoned Cuff Boots by Darla Sims from the Annie's Attic Booklet 879531 Slippers by the Dozen. Now I have looked at the first slipper in the daylight I can see a couple of Oops in the decreasing at the front of the boot so I think that I will take the slipper back to the sole and this time mark the centre stitch up the centre foot to make sure that the decreases are even on either side. As the slipper is all done by counting stitches I think that I must have mis counted last night. I am using up some wool from stash. I think that it is Listers Kaftan which is an aran thickness. I crocheted the soles in doubled wool as the pattern stated but although it is nice and firm for the sole I thought that maybe it was a little firm for the whole slipper. On reflection I think that when I re-do the slipper I might continue with the doubled wool all through as stated on the pattern.

I managed to bribe myself into knitting another couple of stripes on my sweater. Hopefully I can do another couple of stripes today. This way it will soon be over as the sleeves are far smaller to knit than the body has been. First though I must try to sort out the slipper decreases whilst it is still daylight. They will certainly be solid little boots when they are finished. I am making them for my elder niece as she spotted them on the pattern when I first got it and remarked how much she liked them.

I think that I will have a sit down and do nothing (apart from crochet and knit) day today. Tomorrow I have to go to the dentist and that involves a walk to and from the metro in both directions so if I rest today I will be better equipped for the journey. My dentist has his surgery upstairs and I keep joking that he should fit a stair lift for people such as me. I will probably have to skip my next 6 monthly check up if I have had my operation by then as they are very steep stairs even though they do have a handrail.

I got a phone call yesterday to say that the disability aids people are delivering a couple of things for me on Friday that the occupational therapist ordered for me to use before and after my operation. One is a sort of tall lean on seat for use in the kitchen. Yesterday I made potato hash and my knees did not like standing there whilst I peeled and chopped. I have a small stool on the kitchen but it is too low. This new stool has a slope so that I can perch without bending my knees much and has handles for support when I want to get up. I am sure that it will be a boon when I am washing the dishes and maybe now I will get around to the ironing. Well maybe not ;) I hate ironing.

The other two aids are for the bathroom to assist in my toileting. I welcome anything that makes my life easier. At one time I would not have even considered anything like this but pride goes out of the window when pain flies in. I would love one of those mobility scooters so that I could zip up to the shops and back again but I won't get one as I am meant to keep trying to walk as much as possible to keep me active and try to get the weight down. I would be afraid that I would learn to rely on the scooter too much and not walk at all.

They are delivering me a disability catalogue as well so that I can see what is on offer. Probably most of it I will have to buy but if they are things that I will need on a long term basis then I will probably get a few things to make life easier. My house will officially turn into an old peoples home. :) I no longer care what people think. As my 4 wheeled shopping trolley now seems to be a permanent fixture in my life I might splash out and buy a new one as mine was given to me and has definitely seen better days. The new ones are more sturdy and can be leaned on when empty whereas mine has a tendency to tip. I don't know why but I can walk better with my trolley than I can with my stick.

It's another Spring like morning but it still feels a bit cold outside. The sun is shining and even though there isn't much warmth in it I do feel better in myself for seeing a bit of sunshine through my windows.

A Lovely Spring Morning

It's a beautiful spring morning today. The sun is shining and the crocus and daffodils are starting to poke their heads out of the soil. I do hope that this is the start of more spring like weather as I am getting fed up of all the doomy gloomy weather.

Yesterday my ex popped around to see me and dismantled the plastic greenhouse that was in front of my kitchen window. It had suffered during the winter storms and was leaning at a dangerous angle and the plastic cover was pitted with holes rendering it useless for cultivating any seedlings. It has made a big difference to the light in my kitchen but the disadvantage of all of this sunlight is that it shows up my rather dirty windows. I stopped the window cleaner a long time ago as he used to clean portholes in a rectangular window and I knew for a fact that when I wasn't in he didn't clean them at all.Our street now has different window cleaners but I am unsure about starting with them as they use a long handled brush to clean the upstairs instead of a ladder and a cloth. The brush may clean them just as well but I just have this vision of streaky upstairs windows. Plus my back garden is only accessible through my garage so if I wasn't in when they called then they could not clean the back windows.

Last night I managed to make myself go back to the striped knitting but I only did the rib and two stripes. Perhaps if I can do a stripe or two per day then eventually it will get finished.

I am pleased with the red sweater now I have finally got the sleeves sorted out. I buy loads of new patterns and then find out that I like my vintage patterns the best. As you can see from the style, price and hairstyle I have had this pattern since the 60's. It does fit very well and I do think raglan sleeves are more flattering to a larger lady.The wool that I used was 3 x 200 grams of James C Bretts Marble chunky colour MC 14 which is widely available on the net. I got mine from Purplelinda.

I am going to pattern browse and think what I am going to make next. Possibly a pair of crochet slipper socks for my niece. Firstly though - it's coffee time.